[Metromode] Metro Detroit: Under the Radar

Rustic Cabins. Photo by David Lewinski Photography. 

There is no shortage of lists promising you the best sights, bites, scenes, and greens (like parks and whatnot) in metro Detroit. And all of these places are great and definitely worth your time to explore – after all, the D.I.A., Cranbrook, The Henry Ford, Belle Isle and the Detroit Riverfront, and Comerica Park are all part of your mandatory metro Detroit bucket list, especially if you live here.

But for those who have been there done that, what else is there? Plenty! In no particular order and with no claim to being definitive, here are places, events, and other random finds that you may have missed.

Read more.

[HOT LIST] Burgers

iBurger. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

May is National Burger Month. While summer for some means trying to squeeze their pasty white Midwestern blubber butt into last year's bikini only to find that winter has not been kind to them, some of us (hi) have made (an uneasy) peace with the fact that maybe bikini season stopped for us a few years back, and this summer isn't looking much better. There is a certain freedom in realizing you're not Kate Upton, and with that freedom comes the ability to go on the summer #burgercleanse. (Use that hashtag on Instagram plz; trying to make it a thing.)

Perhaps you'll recall when just last week I noted that Detroit is still very much a meat and potatoes town. That being established, you can go ahead and assume that we know our way around a beef patty.  Now, you know all the old familiars -- the ones that have been written up in national publications, the ones that people will Instagram with words like "yum" and people will comment with "want" and "I love that place!" I'm talking about places like Red Coat Tavern and Miller's. Then there's the burger elite -- which, to just go ahead and reference myself again, I already covered them last week -- Vinsetta Garage, Roast, and burger n00b Monk. Iron Chef Michael Symon is also looking to expand his B Spot Burgers into the metro Detroit market, probably because we are a bunch of fat asses. Bottom line? We know some damn burgers.

For the purposes of making this list manageable, chains and fine(r) dining restaurants that serve burgers have been excluded. This is all bar burgers, diners, and straight burger joints. I've also ruled out sliders (sorry Green Dot) because that is a separate list. Also, I am a burger purist: while I concede the notion that burgers can be all dressed up and fancified for the betterment of burger enjoyment, I prefer to experience my burgers in their natural state -- beef, cheese, bun. Nothing more. All assessments have been made based on purely the plain old burger. (With cheese. Because it HAS to have cheese.)

#1 East Side Tavern Mt. Clemens
There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother in which Marshall spends the entire episode on a quest to find the Manhattan burger that changed his life. A burger of such superior quality, that was so much more than JUST a burger but an experience, that it had become legen-waitforit... in Marshall's mind. A burger so transcendent that no other burger could ever live up to its impossibly high standard. A burger that is almost cultural mythos. The burger at East Side Tavern is that burger. But don't take my word for it. Take my word for it.

#2 The Bronx Bar Detroit
Take a giant burger the size of your head and throw it on a sizzling flat-top grill with all of its other burger friends in plain view of the bar (so close, in fact, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the burgers occasionally get seasoned with Jameson's). Then take a giant ciabatta bun, slather it in butter, and throw it on the grill too. For good measure, add a couple of slices of melty American cheese -- which, and I know I'm going to catch some flack for this, in my own very much experienced burger experience is THE superior cheese for burgers -- and a giant pickle on the side. And there you have the Bronx Bar burger. Simple. Magical. It's the burger you just can't quit.

The Emory. 

#3 The Emory Ferndale
The Emory's burgers are something of a local legend. It just goes to show that the secret to a great burger is all in the beef, and theirs comes from Eastern Market's Fairway Packing. (Note: For those who are not familiar with Fairway, their burgers are consistently the best in the business. Any restaurant that serves them is automatically among the top in town.) The big fluffy buns come from Royal Oak bakery Hermann's. And the best part? A burger and fries will cost you only $5 on Tuesdays, and the Emory also rocks a brutal beer list to go with your beef.

From @eatitdetroit Instagram feed.

#4 Good Burger Dearborn
Dearborn is not lacking for good burgers. People still love the shit out of Miller's. There's also Howell's, which some say has the better bar burger. Moo Cluck Moo just opened in Dearborn Heights and is looking to be a game-changer. But I have seen the future, and in this future gas station food is the new trendy pedestrian blue collar IT food that "foodies" will flock to. And it starts at Good Burger. Located inside a BP gas station on Ford Road just a few blocks off of I-94, Good Burger is perhaps the most efficiently-named restaurant in metro Detroit. Because you will leave saying, "Damn, that WAS a good burger." Everything is made fresh in-house -- condiments are made from scratch, fries and onion rings are hand-cut; grilled-to-order burgers are never frozen and served on either a pretzel roll or brioche bun sourced from local bakeries, and the meat itself is expertly seasoned. I told you my rule about eating burgers plain? With this one you won't even WANT to dilute the flavor with any other frippery. Burgers are served with perfectly-crispy (and made to order) seasoned shoestring fries, and they also deliver.

#5 iBurger Dearborn
It would seem that metro Detroit's REAL cheeseburger paradise is Dearborn. Dearborn is just great. I love Dearborn. Have I told you how much I love Dearborn? Such a cultural mish-mosh and I LOVE that. Black people, white people, Arab people, Mexican people -- if you want diversity, it's all in Dearborn, and it's actually properly integrated instead of the street-by-street segregation you find in other "diverse" cities. Now, with a large population of ethnic Arab Muslims, this also means that you'll find a lot of halal restaurants. They're not all Mediterranean, either. You'll find halal Mexican, halal Italian, halal fried chicken, halal pizza, halal sushi. America! Bless you melting pot, and bless you fatass Midwestern eating habits and cultural assimilation. iBurger is a halal burger joint, and, you know, maybe it's because Muslims don't eat pork and can therefore put ALL of their energy into the beef (even the bacon is beef) instead of being distracted by the temptations of pig parts, but damn this is a tasty burger. Read more about it here. They also serve raw juices and ice cream. Raw juices at a burger joint (and they're not talking about the burgers, though those are plenty juicy too). Don't you just freaking LOVE that?

Bubbling under The Detroiter Bar (Detroit), One-Eyed Betty's (Ferndale), Red Hawk (Ann Arbor), the Avenue Pub (Wayne), Cutter's (Eastern Market), McShane's Pub (Corktown), Rosie O'Grady's (Ferndale), Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger (Ann Arbor), Nemo's (Corktown), Mae's (Pleasant Ridge), Greenwich Pub (Detroit), Sidetrack (Ypsilanti), Clubhouse BFD (Rochester), Jay's Stuffed Burgers (Plymouth), Honest John's (Midtown), Doyle's Tavern (Plymouth), Brownie's on the Lake (St. Clair Shores)

[HOT LIST] Prohibition bars

Two Way Inn. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

There is a certain amount of Prohibition-era romanticization happening lately with all the new craft cocktail bars around town looking to be throwbacks to the era. (The Sugar House and the Oakland even take their names from the notorious Purple Gang, the biggest Prohibition bootleggers in the country that were based right here in Detroit.) As much as we love these new bars (and for the love of bourbon and bitters we really truly do), we also love an honest-to-God-and-guns dive bar. These places are the real deal: century-old bars tucked away in residential neighborhoods (each grandfathered in as zoning laws were introduced) that operated as bonafide blind pigs during the days of Prohibition and are still slinging drinks to this day.

#1 Two Way Inn (Detroit)
Many bars claim to be the "oldest bar in Detroit," and probably many of them can fairly lay claim to the title when you factor in shades of difference such as "oldest continuously-operated bar" and "oldest family-owned bar." The Two Way Inn, open since 1876, is one of those bars. Over the course of its lifetime it has been a hotel, brothel, jail, general store, blind pig and bar. Now it's just a damn cool place to hang out. The family that owns it live upstairs and it has exactly that kind of family-atmosphere: stopping in is like dropping by your aunt's house and hanging with your cousins. They have parties and host BBQs and pub crawls, but even if there's no special event going on, the Two Way is the kind of place you can always stop in for a beer (they have Zywiec, aka Polish PBR) and end up doing shots of Jerzy (Polish Jaeger) with the new friends you just made. There's a velvet painting on John Wayne on the wall and they have WiFi (hel-lo new office!). Things to note: you have to be buzzed in through the front door (which is just cool) and it's cash only. Oh, and also, it's haunted.

Photo from Hour Detroit.

#2 East Side Tavern (Mount Clemens)
Located in the basement of an old farmhouse on the outskirts of Mt. Clemens (one of metro Detroit's oldest cities), East Side Tavern feels the most like the century-old bar (and former blind pig) that it is. This place is practically a living room, just with a bar instead of a couch. In fact, it's about the size of one, and the ceiling is so low that even at 5'6'' I felt the need to duck. They like to say, “You’re only a stranger here once," and plenty of would-be “friendly neighborhood joints” claim the same, but this is the kind of place where it’s absolutely true. The bartender knows everyone by name, and if she doesn’t know you, you’ll get introduced into the conversation pretty quickly. (Owner Frank DeBruyn, a 76-year-old who jokes about having a bar in his basement, is usually hanging out too.) Once you get past the novelty of this tiny place in this unexpected location, this is simply a great dive bar chill spot where you can go shoot the shit with the natives and eat (no joke) one of the best burgers you've ever had in your life.

#3 Ye Olde Tap Room (Detroit)
Built in the 1800s as a trolley repair station and operating as a bar since 1912, the Tap Room is a Detroit favorite both for the vibe and for the beer and whiskey - 285 beer labels all total (and some really cool stuff too, both American craft and imports) and an extensive selection of single malt scotches and whiskeys. This is a beer and shot place, but fancy beer and fancy shots (though they do sell plenty of Jameson shots with PBR backs). Despite the impressive selection, there's nothing snooty or pompous about this place. The bartenders are some of the coolest and the customers are a good mix of area locals and workers, Detroit scenesters and hipsters, and beeries from near and far. They also just celebrated their annual Prohibition Party (which, admittedly, was the impetus for this list), and were known as one of the Purple Gang's haunts (the basement was a speakeasy). And they have darts, some cool live bands, and an awesome patio in the summer.

#4 The Gold Star (Wyandotte)
Established in 1923, the Gold Star (in Wyandotte's Polish center) is in an old farmhouse smack-dab in the middle of the neighborhood. To give some perspective here, Wyandotte was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most churches and bars per square mile of any city in the world (blame the predominant Polish-Catholic roots for their love of God and beer). The Gold Star hearkens back to the day when bars were part of the neighborhood and people could walk to them, and is still very much a local neighborhood hangout. It still has the dirt wall basement that was a speakeasy during Prohibition, and is said to be haunted after a tragic fire that killed four children (it was also the family home). The Bozymowski family, who were the original owners and ran the place for decades, no longer own the bar but you can still stop in and say hi to Val, granddaughter of the original owners who still runs the show. Plus they've got $1 drafts and $5 pitchers all day every day and free pool on Sundays. (Cash only.)

#5 Whiskey in the Jar (Hamtramck)
Whiskey is kind of an infamous Hamtramck hangout that attracts the die-hard bar flies, Hamtramck crust punks, old Poles and Detroit drunks in equal quantities. Everyone knows to go here every time there is a drinking high holiday held in Hamtramck (and there's one pretty much every month), but even in downtime this place is great dive bar hangout. Once a speakeasy, it's now part of the Blowout circuit and is easily one of Hamtramck's most popular bars (and there are many). Sidle up to the bar for some socializing with strangers, and if it's your first time in you have to do a shot of Jerzy. (Seriously. They make you.)

Bubbling under Stonehouse Bar (Detroit), Abick's Bar (Detroit), Tom's Tavern (Detroit), Jacoby's German Biergarten (Detroit), Kovacs Bar (Southwest Detroit), Nancy Whiskey (Detroit), New Dodge Lounge (Hamtramck)

Note: Places like Cliff Bell's, Foran's Grand Trunk Pub, and the Dakota Inn Rathskeller, while all old themselves, did not open as bars until after the end of Prohibition (1933, 1933 and 1935, respectively).

[Metromode] Great Neighborhood Bars

The burger at East Side Tavern. 

What defines a "neighborhood bar"? Is it that sense of belonging? The desire to go to a place "where everybody knows your name"? Is it a bar unique to its time and place in history, or is it defined by its patrons and surroundings? Is it a bar you can easily stumble home from or a place that reflects the unique identity of the neighborhood itself?

A neighborhood bar is any and all of those things. It isn't the assembly line sports bar with 50 flat screen TVs and enough flashing lights to induce an epileptic seizure. Nor is it a glammed-up joint with "see-and-be-seen" people in black flashing duck faces for Facebook photos. A neighborhood bar tends to avoids trends, is perhaps a bit off the beaten path, swarming with locals, and above all else comfortable and welcoming. There is a certain level of dive bar je ne sais pas quoi appeal. These places can be over 100 years old or barely opened a year. What defines a neighborhood bar is not the number of people who have reviewed it on Yelp but the crowd of local regulars that keep it vibrant, making it their second living room.

Neighborhood bars in the truest sense proliferate throughout Detroit. These are the bars located in predominantly residential neighborhoods, bars that existed before there was such a thing as zoning, bars that are located in houses right next to the very same houses where its patrons live.

Read more.